Today, materials that have to do with ecotechnologies are benchmarks in any kind of construction. In this case and in particular, green gardens are breaking through green constructions as an ecological trend with great success and acceptance in architecture in addition to the great benefits that they bring in favor of the environment. In the so-called green walls plants are fixed and grown.
Typically green walls and its retaining elements are dense and very thick. Various construction systems and methods have been developed currently to enable and construct green walls with some type of vertical landscape. Most conventional green walls are formed first from a traditional wall (also known as gray wall), almost always a support or metal frame is attached to them; then different types of metal panels, plastic panels, some kind of container, some type of bag and natural or synthetic substrates are placed and fixed to the metal structure so as to accommodate and grow some kind of vegetation, being these bulky and thus expensive.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,961,284, entitled Vertical Garden, discloses a container for growing plants including a rigid self-support material that has an open top and a dosed bottom, a liner with a dosed bottom and an open top, which is placed inside the frame; Framing of openings on the front face of the frame, holes in the liner according to the frame openings; a vertically oriented tube in the growing medium, sealed at the bottom end and open at the top end. Means for hanging and fixing the frame are provided.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,725,601 discloses the use of a main structure that can be constructed using either solid steel assembly or reinforced concrete assembly, which acts as the support structure for the new construction or remodeling. The main structure whether it uses reinforced concrete or steel, is comprised of cells of equilateral size and each cell has a passage between inner and outer wall. The inner wall uses the passages to secure accompanying structures and systems to a wall that uses this structural system. The outer wall uses the holes for securing the retaining assembly to the structure. There is a stratum from the floor to the wall that creates plant pots along the outer wall face. The flowerpots are also to fix the retaining assembly with the vertical structure and vegetation. The passages between inner and outer walls are also used to feed the vegetation, allowing direct access to the plant in the structure; using the construction method of this invention each plant can receive the optimal amount of irrigation, drainage and fertilizers.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,627,983 B1 discloses a modular system for housing walls with plant growing comprising a plurality of plant pots configured so that they can be attached at their edges to form a vertical wall. These curve-shaped plant pots with front surface define a container for the plants, which can be manufactured in porous surfaces to allow water supply and filtration. Another embodiment consists of stacked bio-blocks having cavities for soil and water, which are fixed to a matrix surface, with openings for the plants growing in the soil media.
Patent application WO 2011/148011 discloses a green wall system for facades, which comprises placing and fixing a metal frame to which is attached a plastic panel that serves a support for the geogrids and these serve as a support for the plants. At the top of the geogrids are drip-irrigation nozzles fed via a water-recirculation passage, since the excess water is collected in a channel, and then is filtered, analyzed and supplemented with fertilizers and acids, all of which is controlled by a computer, being possible to drain the recirculation circuit and add fresh treated water.
Spain patent application 200901772 with publication number 2 376 932 discloses a three-dimensional structure system for a sustainable vegetation cover, which is part of hydroponics and soil-less cultivation applied to modern gardening in sustainable buildings. The modular growing units allow overlapping and independence of the remainder, includes anchorage of units, fertigation and collection of drainage, which are installed in three-dimensional architectural surfaces. The holes for vegetation are designed in such way that they avoid the side fall of the substrate and the removal of plants individually by the observer. Culture units are watered by self-compensating, anti-drain drippers, one for each modular cultivation unit and hidden from view.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,729,944 discloses a building erected with thermoplastic structural components extruded, these components include hollow panels, hollow connectors, beams, and hollow adapters. For assembling the system, the extruded components are interlocked to each other continuously by their edges to form vertical walls and the roof of the building. Each structural component is hollow, made of PVC plastic material, with spaced inner and outer was that are connected by means of transverse interlocks, forming internal cells, appears basically as a panel in which concrete is poured to form inner and outer wall faces with smooth and plastic finish.
A drawback of Vittorio De Zen's system is that his plastic component system was designed for buildings with a surface finish that is always smooth and plastic, the assembly thereof is made by means of a hollow thermoplastic panel with male-like coupling means at their ends; for assembling the system it is always required a connector between panels, and without these connectors is not possible to do this.
Patent application PCT/MX2005/000012 with international publication number WO 2005/098158 A1 discloses a panel structure with coupling means for prefabricating buildings, the panel structure is rectangular and longitudinal with internal individual cavities not interconnected, easy to assembly and to couple each other, as well as complementary structural elements such as steel columns inserted and coupled only in the cavities formed between the assemblies of the panel structure against the panel structure, so that concrete or any other material is poured into the inner cavities, thus forming a wall structure with plastic surface and finishing for building.
A major drawback of this panel structure system with coupling means for prefabricated buildings is that in the wall structure assembly there is no internal communication between elements, thus reducing the structural capabilities of the system; when concrete or other material is poured a monolithic continuous final structure is not obtained; to achieve structural stability the system uses steel columns with non-commercial structural profiles, this greatly increases manufacturing and project costs, and in addition the system was designed to always obtain a smooth and plastic final surface in its walls.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,628,570 B2 discloses a modular retaining wall, wherein the wall is at least partially below a surface, and the surface can be land-based or aqueous-based, the walls consist of open or closed polygonal modules with channels disposed therein, as well as other components such as hollow profiles, flat profiles, module connectors, hollow corner-connecting profiles and hollow adapters. The wall modules are fastened together by respective coupling and fastening closures so that the connectivity is always provided between modules; however it retains the ability for the liquid to pass through, being always smooth and plastic the finish surface.
A drawback of the John Davidsaver and Acott Yeany's modular system is that to form intermediate and divider wall configurations elements like nuts and bolts are required, this increases the building time and the apparent low costs of these elements, which in larger scale are reflected in increased building times and project costs, and also that the system was designed for a smooth and plastic surface finishing.
Based on the above, there is a need in the market for a new green wall system more versatile, more manageable and in less scale, a new comprehensive green wall system wherein the wall, the cavity and the container for housing and cultivating the plant are integrated in the same module, as well as elements to secure them, also being this system the main support structure, thus eliminating the use of any kind of structure or metal support frame, also eliminating the support and retaining means such as panels, containers and growing units, as well as their mounting elements such as screws, nails and self-drilling screws; greatly reducing the times and costs of building. The present invention aims to provide a solution for this need detected, and it would be of great relevance in the field of prefabricated materials for the construction industry.